Glamour & Fiery: The Crescent Sacrifice
by CreativelyAloof
Summary: BOOK ONE. When Pansy Parkinson became Hermione's new Auror partner, she thought the hardest thing they'd have to accomplish is not killing each other. But when one of their assignments uncovers some ancient secrets, they'll have to put aside their differences to save the wizarding world one more time. [Black!Hermione/Pansy][Post-Hogwarts][Slight AU]
1. The Non-magical Kind

**Hello readers!**

**I am so so excited about this project. This is book ONE of a series - almost like a comic book thing, starring Hermione Granger and Pansy Parkinson!**

**I've had this idea for a bit and I'm super excited to get working on it. I hope you enjoy it!**

**Please keep in mind, this story is rated M more so for language and violence than anything else, but it _is_ a f/f romance between Hermione x Pansy. Their romance isn't the main focus of the story, but it is a big part of it. So please don't spam me with comments/PMs asking me to pair them with other people. I'll be in charge of deciding if they split and have other relationships or not. Also, please be aware this story will be in the AU category, so a lot of the characters will be people I've made up.**

**Each "book" will have a different theme and there won't necessarily be an "order" to them, but I will have a bit of a "timeline" between the stories which can be determined usually by the relationship between the characters. I'll always specify which book it is (book one, book two, etc) in the description though, so hopefully it won't be confusing! Again, just think of it like Agent Hermione and Agent Pansy starring in their own comic book series, except it's fanfiction.**

**Anyway, let me know your thoughts, and make sure to comment and favorite so you always know when I update!**

**Happy reading!**

* * *

**Glamour and Fiery; The Crescent Sacrifice**

**Chapter One: _The Non-magical Kind_**

* * *

"I'm in position," Hermione whispered into the little M-shaped pin on her chest.

"Don't move until we give you the signal." A voice whispered back to her. "He's incredibly dangerous."

A loud snarl echoed from the small shack in the middle of the woods. Hermione shifted her boots in the mud under her feet. "You don't have to remind me." She whispered back. Her eyes remained glued to the door of the shack in case the man inside decided to make a run for it. She gripped her wand tight by her side and listened to the dull thudding of her heart as it raced inside her chest.

She didn't know how long she'd been out in that forest, squatting and waiting for an opportunity to strike. A rain shower had come through at some point and doused the trees and brush, effectively camouflaging her scent. If it were up to her, she would've already launched an attack. Why would she wait for a dangerous werewolf to turn into a werewolf before arresting him when she could've just grabbed him while he was in his human form? Especially a werewolf that could turn without the use of a full moon.

But her partner had other plans, and the Ministry actually agreed with them for once.

Another loud growl came from inside the shack. This time it sounded distorted and pained.

"Now!" The voice came from her pin once more.

Hermione launched from her spot in the brush and hurled herself towards the shack as fast as she could. Just as she reached the door, it broke from its hinges and soared through the air. She slid onto her back and watched the door fly over her before it slammed into a tree and shattered into broken pieces. She turned back in time to see a large, hulking figure leap from the open doorframe towards her.

"_Stupefy_!" Hermione yelled as she thrust her wand up at the creature. A red flash of light expelled from the tip of her wand and slammed into the werewolf's chest. The force of it knocked the creature back and he tumbled to the side with a furious snarl.

Taking advantage of the situation, Hermione leaped to her feet and spun around to face him, but he was already up again. He snarled angrily; a long strand of saliva dangled from his jowls and nearly touched the ground. He kicked his back foot before he soared through the air once more for her. Back in her third year at Hogwarts, the scariest thing she could imagine was encountering a werewolf. Now, it seemed like old news.

She raised her wand, but her spell was cut short when he slammed into her and toppled her back onto the ground. Her head slammed into the ground and her breath caught in her throat. All she could see were the daunting, yellow eyes of a man who had lost his wits.

His lips pulled back to reveal a slimy row of sharp teeth and he reared up as though to slam her down into the ground again.

"_Confundus_!" Another voice shouted from inside the shack. A bright light flashed out from inside the dark structure and hit the werewolf square in the back. In a moment of inflicted rage and confusion, he abandoned her and attempted to disappear into the thicket of trees.

Hermione scrambled for her wand and aimed at the werewolf's quickly retreating figure. "_Immobulus_!" A flash of blue rocketed from the tip of her wand and hit the werewolf. Silence echoed loudly in her ears as she watched the figure stumble and collapse into a heap on the dirt floor. When she was certain he wasn't going to move again, she pulled herself to her feet and dusted off the butt of her jeans. "I didn't need your help." She said haughtily to the shack's gaping hole where the front door used to be.

The shack's floorboards creaked with each step as her partner walked out into the clearing. Pansy Parkinson was just as insufferable as an adult as she had been as a teenager.

"Not from where I was standing. It looked like you were struggling." Pansy said. Her black boots stomped through the muck and leaves over to the werewolf. From the pocket of her coat, she pulled out a syringe and knelt down beside the immobilized creature that was twice her size.

"I was doing just fine on my own." Hermione bit back. She wouldn't admit it out loud, but Pansy's charm skills were exemplary. She might even be better at them than Hermione was.

"Whatever you say." Pansy muttered. She stuck the needle into the werewolf's arm and began to extract a blood sample. "Why don't you check the shack while I finish up here?"

Hermione glared down at the back of Pansy's raven-haired head. She knew the other girl was just trying to get rid of her. Pansy's ego was worse than Harry's in the sense that she thought she could handle everything without anyone's help. Without another word to her partner, Hermione turned and started towards the shack. Anything to get away from the ice queen.

The shack was small. A one-room, 20ft by 20ft space with a small table, chair, and a bookcase; all of which had been destroyed during Pansy's interrogation process, which Hermione had yet to see in person. She edged closer into the shack and squatted down by the dismantled bookcase. She pushed a few of the books aside and read the covers as she went. A few books on potions, some on werewolves, a book solely dedicated to the moon and its movements. It was all so very typical.

As much as Hermione would hate the thought of a powerful being loose in the world, it would at least make their jobs a little more interesting. Not that it needed to be, she supposed.

Just as she had given up her search for anything useful, she spotted a small picture frame hidden in the shadows on the back wall of the shack. Perhaps a clue as to who this mystery man was. She moved the overturned table aside and squeezed her way toward the picture, but she was incredibly disappointed when she realized it was just a torn book page of Leonardo DaVinci's Vitruvian Man in a frame. How very typical.

"What are you looking at?"

Hermione turned to see that Pansy had finished with her extraction and was placing the bottle of werewolf blood into her coat pocket. She shook her head and waved dismissively at the picture. "Just this." She turned away from Pansy and pulled the pin on her chest closer to her mouth. "We got the blood sample. I'm sending you our coordinates now to retrieve the body." A loud crack interrupted her, and Hermione spun around with her wand raised.

She stalled upon seeing the sudden gaping hole in the floor that led down into the ground. A set of rickety, wooden staircases descended into the darkness.

"What did you do?" Hermione accused.

Pansy glared at her. "I just picked up the picture." She held up the framed Vitruvian Man before she tossed it to the ground. The glass shattered. "Let's go." She said before she started down the steps.

"We can't go down there," Hermione argued. "We're just here to collect - "

"Oh Merlin, live a little Granger, would you?" Pansy said as she continued down the steps until the darkness swallowed her up.

Hermione hesitated. She glanced out the door and eyed the werewolf lump that still sat immobilized on the ground in the clearing. She pointed her wand down into the darkness. "Lumos," she said. The tip of her wand lit up and cast an eerie glow onto the stairs. Pansy was nowhere to be seen. Hermione swore under her breath before she started after her. She couldn't let her wander off on her own. Not with her track record. It was one of the reasons that their boss had insisted on pairing them together. If Hermione had known that she would've been partnered with Pansy Parkinson, she would've thought twice about becoming an Auror.

The uneven steps groaned under her weight until she reached a dirt corridor at the bottom. "Parkinson?" Hermione whispered; she wasn't sure how sturdy the ceiling above her head was. There didn't seem to be any supporting beams anywhere. This structure was made from magic, but it was an old magic, she could tell from the musty scent of the place. She stretched her wand arm out in front of her to cast light further down into the tunnel and squinted into the dark. "Pansy?"

"Down here!" Pansy called from further into the darkness.

Hermione sighed impatiently but followed the sound of her voice. The walls were alive with spiders and worms, and she tried her best not to look at them as she made her way deeper into the caverns. Despite her best efforts, her curiosity was getting the best of her. What did a werewolf need with an underground set of caverns like this? What was he hiding down here? A crack of broken glass under her feet stopped her in her tracks. She knelt down and hovered her wand over the area. Something wet glistened on the ground. Maybe a vial had broken? But what could have been inside?

She reached into her pocket and pulled out an empty vessel. It turns out she really had learned a thing or two from Slughorn; always carry a few empty vials on your person for purposes such as this. She uncorked the vessel and carefully pushed some of the moistened dirt into the vial with the tip of her wand so as not to touch it with her bare hands.

"Granger, you better come look at this." Pansy's voice called from further into the caverns.

Hermione corked the vessel and placed it into the little beaded bag attached to her belt before she continued on. She could hear dripping water somewhere as it splattered against the ground. She rounded another corner and came to a standstill. The little corridor opened up to a dirt room, with bookshelves full of tombs and tables scattered with rat tails and other bits and pieces of potions ingredients, some that looked familiar and others that didn't. There was even a wood stove in the corner with a little metal teapot on it.

"Our werewolf friend wasn't alone here," Pansy said. She stood looking up at the ceiling where a gaping manmade hole in the ground let rain droplets fall into the room. It looked like whoever had made it had dug the hole from the inside out, and recently.

"What is this place?" Hermione wondered out loud. She moved aside some of the books on the shelves. Spellbooks specifically for dark magic, potions books for those hoping to create their own concoctions, and many other equally suspicious materials. Now this was more what she was used to.

"Granger, Parkinson." A voice echoed from both the pins on Hermione's and Pansy's chests. "Requesting location of the subject?"

Pansy seemed too interested in the ingredients on the table to acknowledge the voice. Not that she was very accustomed to following procedures anyway. She never made an effort to answer the pin.

"Subject is immobilized on the West side of the clearing outside the shack," Hermione said into her pin. She picked up a book from the back of the shelf and turned it around in her hands. The covers had so much water damage that it was impossible to see what the title had been, though she could somewhat make out the image of something human-like on the cover. In a spur of the moment decision, Hermione opened her beaded bag and pushed the book inside effortlessly.

"There are no eyes on the subject." The voice from the pin said. "You're sure it was in the clearing?"

Pansy looked up from the strange plant she had been investigating with a quizzical look on her face.

Hermione was certain her face mirrored the same look of confusion. "Yes, he should be there."

There was a long, tense pause before the voice from their pins came back again. "He's not here."

Pansy pulled her wand from her holster. "What does he mean he's not here?"

"What do you mean he's not here?" Hermione repeated into her pin.

"I'm telling you; the clearing is empty. He's not… wait…"

Hermione could hear the sound of fabric rubbing against fabric. Her and Pansy waited tensely. "What is it?" Hermione asked when she thought she was going to explode from anticipation.

"It's… oh, Merlin. _Stupefy_!" A loud snarl echoed over the pin.

"We gotta move," Hermione said, even though Pansy had already started for the caverns. Hermione cursed and followed after her.

The light from her wand bounced around the dank corridors and cast long shadows along the walls. She ran for several minutes before she slowed down again. Something didn't feel right. She had already turned this corner three times and she didn't feel like she was moving forward at all. She pulled to a stop and eyed the ceiling and walls for something familiar as she turned in a circle, but there was nothing.

"Pansy?" Hermione called out. She listened for some noise to follow out of the caverns. But all she heard was silence. "Pansy!"

"She can't hear you."

Hermione whipped around and held up her wand. A burst of startled magic escaped and lit up the dark corridor before it collided with the wall of the tunnel. The walls shook briefly before falling still again. She squinted into the dark. "Who are you?"

"That's none of your concern." The voice calmly said. Hermione guessed it was a male, though she couldn't determine the age or where it was coming from. The voice seemed to be whispered right into her head. "You're smart. I am, in fact, inside your head."

Hermione turned in a slow circle. She scanned the darkness around her, willing her eyes to adjust. "Where are you then?"

"Close by. Watching."

"What do you want?" She asked.

"To be free."

"You seem pretty free to me."

The voice scoffed at this. "You would think so, wouldn't you? But you would never understand. Your kind never do."

Hermione stiffened. "My kind?" She asked through gritted teeth.

"Wizardkind."

Hermione loosened. That was not what she had been expecting. She had anticipated some slander about her inferior birth or something similar. "You're not a wizard, then?"

The voice chuckled darkly at this. "Of course not."

"Then what are you?"

Silence answered her. A draft of cold air overcame her, and she was certain the walls had begun to move. The noise of the earth moving was so loud. She kneeled and braced herself as the wind began to pick up speed; so fast that it started to cut off her air circulation and she struggled to breathe. Her curly hair blasted backward, and she dug her fingers into the dirt to keep herself from being blown away.

"Come find out." The voice whispered. As the last syllable drifted away, the walls ground to a halt and the wind stopped.

Hermione gasped for air and collapsed to the ground. Her heart raced and she felt uneasy.

"Granger!" Pansy. "Get your ass up here and help would yo – _oof_!"

Hermione closed her eyes and gathered herself before she pushed off towards Pansy's voice. She rounded the corner and was relieved to see the familiar rickety set of stairs that lead up to the little shack. She bounded up the stairs as fast as she could, wand at the ready, with no time to consider what had just happened.

A loud growl ripped through the air just as she made it to the clearing. The werewolf they had managed to sedate had somehow broken free from Hermione's spell and was rampaging havoc against the Ministry agents who had appeared to pick up the mess they had created. Pansy was nowhere to be seen, but Hermione could see bodies scattered around the clearing. A rock sunk in the pit of her stomach. She barely had time to leap out of the way when the massive figure of the werewolf crashed down beside her. She rolled several times on the ground before she hopped back up and pointed her wand, but she was too late. The creature was already on top of her. He reached his elongated limbs out and snapped his saliva and blood-filled mouth.

"_Wingardium Leviosa_!"

Just as Hermione prepared herself for the worst bite of her life, the werewolf careened through the air to the other side of the clearing. She blinked several times and jumped when she noticed Pansy had appeared beside her and yanked her to her feet by the crook of her arm. "Come on Granger, get off your ass."

"Sorry," Hermione shook her head and scrambled to her feet. "It's actually LeviOsa, not – "

"Granger we don't have time for your shit!" Pansy screamed. "_Impedimenta_!" A flash of light spiraled from Pansy's wand and hit the werewolf square in the face and instantly trapped him in slow motion.

"_Petrificus Totalus_!" The spell fired from Hermione's wand and slammed into the werewolf as he scrambled in the slowest of movements towards them. He cried out before his limbs froze up and he slammed down to the ground for the second time.

A hush fell over the clearing. All Hermione could hear were the sounds of heavy panting.

Pansy bent down at the waist to rest her hands on her knees. "You sure took your sweet time." She spat.

"I…" Hermione hesitated, unsure of how to describe what had happened to her down in the caverns. "Sorry." She finally settled with.

Pansy gave her a quizzical look but said nothing.

"Granger, Parkinson." The familiar voice of her boss came from their pins this time. "Status report."

Hermione gazed around the clearing. Her eyes caught on every still body. She counted six of them and the rock in her stomach grew heavier. She could feel the tears as they gathered in her eyes. She straightened and took a breath to steady herself.

"Subject is in custody. There are casualties at the site." Pansy answered back before Hermione could get a word out.

She didn't want to admit it, but she was thankful to have Pansy with her at that moment. She wasn't sure she could've radioed back without her voice wobbling.

"How many?" Their boss asked.

Pansy looked at Hermione.

"Six," Hermione whispered.

"We have six down."

"Damn it." Their boss whispered. Silence engulfed them. "Get back to the Ministry."

Pansy rolled her eyes and Hermione sighed through her nose. This wasn't going to end well.

* * *

Hermione watched the rain splatter against the window from her seat in one of the stiff chairs in her boss's office. Pansy refused to sit down, as was her custom whenever they were called back to base. She leaned against the wall in the back of the room and looked bored with her arms crossed over her chest. Hermione couldn't help but feel nervous. Like she was a student back at school about to get reprimanded, except this was so much worse.

Several minutes later, the door opened and their boss walked in. A graying-haired, dark-skinned man with a slender frame by the name of Anthony Jenkins. He sauntered into the room with two thick manila folders in his hands, which he slammed down onto the top of his desk before he sat in his chair behind his desk and rubbed at his temple.

Hermione glanced over her shoulder at Pansy, but she seemed unbothered by their boss's presence and didn't look back at her.

"Six deaths." Anthony muttered tiredly under his breath. "All because you two can't seem to follow procedure."

"But sir, we – " Hermione started, but she was instantly cut off.

"There are no excuses, Ms. Granger. Men died today because of your ignorance. Good men. _My_ men."

Hermione snapped her mouth shut. She knew he was right. They never should have gone down into that hole before backup had shown up.

"Do you have any idea how severe this situation is?" Anthony leaned forward in his seat and placed his hands on the desk. "The press are going to go nuts when they find out about this. You two could lose your jobs in this department."

Hermione winced at this. "Yes, sir." She said dutifully.

"It wasn't our fault," Pansy spoke up.

Hermione sighed loudly. She knew Pansy would do this.

"Not your fault?" Anthony echoed in astonishment. "This is entirely your fault."

"How we were supposed to know he would break free? He was downed when we found it."

"Found what?" Anthony asked.

Hermione looked at Pansy out of the corner of her eye. She could see Pansy pause and knew she had not meant to speak about the hole they had found.

"Found what?" Anthony asked again. This time he directed his question at Hermione. Out of the two of them, she could understand why Anthony would try and get the information out of her over Pansy.

Hermione shifted in her seat uncomfortably. "We found a passage underneath the shack."

Pansy growled like a dog behind her.

"And? What did you find?" Anthony asked eagerly.

"A few corridors and a room, with some books and what looked like potion ingredients."

Anthony looked at her expectantly. "And?"

Hermione hesitated. She hadn't told Pansy about the confusing stretch of caverns she had been trapped in or the voice she had heard inside her head, and she didn't know if she wanted to tell Anthony. It hadn't felt real, more like a hallucination. "That's it." She finally said.

Anthony sighed in defeat. "That's hardly enough to excuse your actions."

Pansy looked murderous.

"I'm sorry. I have no choice but to revoke your status at this department. At least until we can decide what your punishment should be." Anthony said.

"That seems like punishment enough," Pansy grumbled, looking sour.

"Please Mr. Jenkins. We couldn't have possibly known – "

Anthony raised a hand. "I'm sorry Ms. Granger. It's out of my control."

Pansy unclipped the little M-pin from her chest and tossed it carelessly onto Anthony's desk. "Sure. Of course it is." She said sarcastically before she turned on the heels of her boots and stormed out of the room.

Hermione sat awkwardly in her seat, uncertain of what to do. She didn't want to give up her pin. At Hogwarts, she had never imagined herself becoming an Auror, but now that she was one, she couldn't imagine her life being any other way. What was she meant to do with her days?

"Ms. Granger," Anthony said with his hand held out towards her.

With painfully slow movements, Hermione stood and took off her M-pin before she handed it over to him. "I'm sorry." She said quietly.

Anthony sighed. "I know." He said before he opened one of the drawers of his desk and brushed the pins into its depths. "You're free to go."

Hermione nodded and turned before she walked out of the room. She hadn't gotten five steps down the hall before Pansy appeared by her side.

"Why did you tell him about that room?" She barked.

"What was I supposed to say?" Hermione asked.

Pansy rolled her eyes. "You're such a fucking goody-goody Granger. You need to – "

"Live a little. Yeah, I got it." Hermione said bitterly. They continued to walk in silence until they reached the elevator. "What are you going to do now?"

Pansy looked contemplative and mischievous like she was planning something big. This made Hermione nervous. Pansy had only been assigned to her eight months ago, but since then, she has proven again and again that she couldn't be trusted to work on her own.

"What are you thinking?" Hermione asked as they boarded the empty elevator. There were hardly any Aurors there at four in the afternoon. They were all out in the field. A thought that brought a pang of sadness with it.

"I'll tell you when you tell me what you saw down there," Pansy said confidently after the elevator doors closed and they were whisked away.

Hermione shifted on her feet. "What do you mean?"

Pansy eyed her carefully. "I guess you'll never know then," she said.

They arrived on the first floor and Pansy stalked away before Hermione had the chance to say anything else. For a moment, she contemplated following her. The girl was up to no good, it was clear to see. But she had a hard time finding it in herself to care. She was exhausted and grimy, and she wanted nothing more than to take a shower and wallow over her job.

Her mind was on autopilot as her legs carried her to the entrance of the Ministry, where she turned in a quick circle and apparated back home.

* * *

Her apartment wasn't anything special. A small abode tucked into the dingy corner of Diagon Alley. She turned her key in the lock and forced the door open. Her living room was a vast improvement from the dark, moldy hallways of the building. She and Ron had spent several weeks deep-cleaning this place when they had first seen it. Now it felt warm and inviting, with little candles scattered around and some homey decorations Hermione had found at a muggle thrift-store in London.

Coming back here always relaxed her tense muscles and she took a deep breath of the apple and pumpkin scents that she had peppered into the air at the start of October.

With heavy feet, she carried herself to the bathroom where she stripped of her wet clothes. She had already washed her hair a few days ago, but the culmination of muck and leaves had begun to weigh down her curls. She turned on the hot water and relished in the feel of it as it cascaded down the sore muscles of her back.

She stayed in a little longer than she normally would; trying to eat up some of her new-found "free time." The water started to run cold by the time she turned it off and stepped out. She wrapped a thick towel around herself and padded to her bedroom, where she sat herself down onto the edge of her bed. That's when the feeling of doom began to creep in. She looked around her bedroom at the pictures of her and Ron, books she had accumulated from her Hogwarts' days, and the scented candles she had grown more and more obsessed with the older she got. A soft meow echoed from her feet before Crookshanks leaped up onto the bed beside her. He purred lazily and Hermione reached a hand out to stroke his head before she sighed and fell down onto her back.

What was she going to do now?

* * *

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	2. Unexpected Visitors

**Hello readers!**

**Chapter two is here! I hope you're liking the story so far.**

**Remember to follow and leave a review if you're enjoying it!**

* * *

**Glamour and Fiery; The Crescent Sacrifice**

**Chapter Two: Unexpected Visitors**

* * *

10 AM on a Friday, only one day after she'd been banned from going to work, and Hermione had already run out of things to fill her time with. She'd cleaned her apartment, paid her bills, read a few pages of a new book she'd been eyeing for a few months now, but nothing could keep her mind occupied. She had no cases to work on and no leads to follow. She felt so… _bored_.

It was just as she had started to settle in for a nap that a knock came at her door.

With a heavy sigh, she picked herself up from the couch, wrapped a blanket around herself to fend off the cold drafts from the hallway, and opened the door to her apartment. She was more than surprised to see Pansy standing on the other side of it. She was dressed head to toe in chic black clothes; a beret on her raven hair, a long trench coat, a leather handbag, a wool scarf wrapped tightly around her slender neck and a pair of over-sized sunglasses that took up most of her face. The only pop of color she had was the paleness of her skin and the bright red of her lipstick.

"How do you know where I live?" Was the first thing Hermione could think to say.

Pansy reached up and pulled the sunglasses from her face to expose her mischievous, cat-like green eyes. "I read your file."

Hermione sputtered at this. "What? When?"

Pansy shrugged. "I don't know, a few months ago? Can I come in?"

Hermione debated on telling her no, but she knew she couldn't realistically send her away. If Pansy wanted to be there, she'd be there, whether someone wanted her to be there or not. "Sure," she opened the door a little wider.

Pansy stepped into her living room and examined it with wandering eyes. Hermione closed the door behind her and wrapped herself tighter in her blanket. It felt weird to have Pansy Parkinson in her living room. It felt weird to have anyone in her living room. The last time she'd had a visitor was several months ago when Ginny stopped by with baby James. It was the first time Ginny had been allowed out of the house since her son's grueling birth had taken a toll on her, and mostly all she did was console baby James as he cried bloody murder.

"It's nicer in here than I expected it to be," Pansy commented. "A little small, but home-y, I guess."

Hermione didn't know if that was a compliment or not. "Would you like something to drink?" She gestured feebly to the kitchen area, but Pansy was already shaking her head. "What are you doing here?" She asked.

In typical, Pansy-like fashion, she skipped beating around the bush and began to rummage through her bag. After a few seconds of searching, she pulled out a folded newspaper and handed it to Hermione, who reluctantly untangled herself from her blanket to take it.

"Are those bunny slippers?" Pansy raised an eyebrow down at Hermione's now exposed feet.

Hermione glanced down at her fuzzy slippers, complete with floppy bunny ears and little whiskers. "Oh yeah, cute huh?"

Pansy said nothing and instead began to impatiently gesture to the newspaper again.

Hermione unfolded it and scanned the cover. She didn't need to read for very long to find what Pansy wanted her to see. The whole front side of the paper was about their recent battle with the werewolf-man. "It was bound to get out eventually," Hermione mumbled. She just hadn't expected it to be this soon.

"Read the seventh paragraph," Pansy said with an eye roll.

Hermione looked back down at the article. "When questioned, Auror Marcus Flint was quoted saying, 'I'm not surprised this happened. While [Ms.] Granger has always been a stickler for the rules, Pansy's incompetence was sure to drag them both down eventually, and those men paid the price for it.'"

"He's blaming me for the deaths of those people," Pansy shrieked. "And to think I almost let him kiss me in fourth year."

Hermione winced. She didn't want to put all of the blame on Pansy because that didn't seem fair, but she had specifically told her that they shouldn't have gone down into those tunnels without waiting for backup to arrive first. "What's done is done." She folded the newspaper awkwardly and tried to hand it back to her, but Pansy wanted nothing to do with it.

"Yeah, actually, I could use a drink." She dropped her bag onto one of the stools by Hermione's counter and draped her scarf over it before she disappeared into the kitchen. "Got any wine in here?"

Hermione shifted on the spot. "No, sorry."

"Vodka?"

"None of that either."

"Whiskey? You don't really seem the type, but I'm open to anything."

"Yeah, that's not really my thing."

Pansy's head poked back out from the kitchen. "Tequila?"

Hermione sighed and balanced the newspaper on top of Pansy's scarf. "No, I mean, I don't have any alcohol here. It's not really my thing."

Pansy blinked at her. "What?" She asked, as though Hermione had not been speaking English to her.

She pulled her blanket tighter around herself and shrugged. "Sorry, I just don't like to drink."

Pansy continued to blink at her, dumbfounded. "Like… at all? Ever?"

Hermione thought about that time back in Hogwarts when she had gotten drunk after a Gryffindor game and found herself sitting alone in a corridor, crying about nothing. She shook her head. "No. Not even a little bit."

"You're a strange person, Granger. You need to – "

"Live a little?" Hermione raised an eyebrow.

Pansy huffed. "Well, I could still use a drink. Do you want to come with me?"

Now it was Hermione's turn to blink incredulously at her. Was Pansy inviting her to hang out? They never hung out, especially not outside of work or when it wasn't absolutely necessary. "I don't know," Hermione said hesitantly. "What if Anthony needs us?"

Pansy snorted as she replaced the scarf around her neck. "Then he'd regret turning us away even more in the first place."

Hermione thought about this. It had been a while since she'd had a day off, and while it was with Pansy Parkinson, she could still use the company. She missed her friends dearly, but she knew how busy people can get with their day-to-day lives. "Okay," she complied hesitantly. "Sure, why not?"

"Great, but please by the grace of Merlin himself, take those stupid slippers off."

* * *

"Yes, I'll have a double vodka cranberry, extra cherries on top," Pansy ordered her drink as though she'd been doing it for years.

"And you?" The grumpy bartender grunted out as he turned his one good eye onto her.

"Water is fine, please."

The bartender gave her a curious look before he wobbled off to get their drinks ready.

"Really?" Pansy asked. "You won't drink anything?"

Hermione ignored the fact that she had already told Pansy that she didn't like to drink. "It's not even lunch yet."

"So?" Pansy kept her sunglasses on, despite them being in a dimly lit bar. "You're on vacation."

"Is that how you see all of this? A vacation?" Hermione asked.

The bartender came back with their drinks. Pansy took out one of the cherries and popped it into her mouth. "I have to see it that way." She said seriously.

An unsettling silence fell over them. Hermione tried to come up with something to say. She twirled her straw around in her glass while Pansy took a sip of her drink; leaving behind a big lipstick stain on the brim. Hermione eyed it. She never had the courage to wear bright lipstick like that out in public. She was almost jealous of Pansy for being able to pull it off so well.

"How come you joined the Aurors?" Hermione asked. She couldn't stand the silence any longer.

Pansy shrugged. "I don't know. Glory, or whatever."

Hermione raised an eyebrow. "Glory?"

"Yeah, you know. Helping people. Being a better person. Blah, blah, blah."

Hermione didn't know how much she believed her, but she didn't press the matter.

"So, are you going to tell me what you saw or didn't see down in those tunnels?" Pansy asked conversationally.

Hermione winced. She should've seen this coming. "I'm sorry," she started to say. "I didn't see anything, so…"

Pansy looked at her from behind her large sunglasses. "Why are you lying to me? You're not a very good liar, Granger. We're supposed to be partners."

Hermione hesitated. She didn't know why she was keeping this such a secret. Perhaps it reminded her too much of Voldemort. During the battle of Hogwarts, he had whispered into their ears much like she had heard the voice down in the tunnels do. To think she was the only one to receive such a message, well, this is what Harry must've felt like all throughout their years at Hogwarts. It was incredibly unsettling. "I… heard something. It's difficult to explain."

Pansy turned in her seat to face her. "Try me." She said before she sucked down an impressive amount of her drink.

"I don't know." Hermione shook her head. "I was right behind you one minute and then the next… it's like I couldn't move. I kept trying to run but I didn't go anywhere. And then I heard… the voice. It said something about wanting freedom and that it was watching from a distance." Hermione stopped. She wished she could see Pansy's eyes to know if she believed her or not. "I told you, it's difficult to explain. It probably wasn't even real."

"How could it not be real?" Pansy asked.

"Well, a few minutes before I had picked up something…" Hermione trailed off in shock. She couldn't believe she had forgotten all about the substance she had found on the ground that she had scrapped into her spare vessel or the book she had stolen from that underground room.

"What did you pick up?" Pansy asked. Hermione could tell she was eagerly listening now by the way she leaned towards her.

"I don't know exactly. Something must've shattered and spilled everywhere. I have it in a vial back home, along with this book – "

"What book?"

Hermione sighed impatiently. "I told you, I don't know."

"You mean you didn't read it? You had all night!"

"I'd forgotten about it until this minute," Hermione argued back. She could feel her cheeks heating up with embarrassment. How could she have forgotten about those items? "We should return them to Anthony." Hermione was about to stand to her feet when Pansy's hand came out and grabbed a hold of her arm to stop her in her tracks. She couldn't help but admire the pristine condition in which Pansy kept her nails. They glistened prettily; like little diamonds.

"We can't give it to Anthony." She said.

"Why not?" Hermione raised a skeptical eyebrow.

"Because, if we give it back then we won't have any leads!" Pansy said this as though it were obvious.

Hermione sat back down. "What do you mean by leads? We're not working on anything right now, remember?"

"But we could be." Pansy downed the rest of her drink. She tapped the glass twice on the bar to signal a refill.

"I don't know…" Hermione bit her lip nervously. "Anthony was pretty clear yesterday that we were off the case."

Pansy waved a dismissive hand as the bartender topped off her glass. "Who cares what Anthony says?"

Hermione almost said that she did, but she refrained at the last second. "I don't know." She said again.

"Look, nobody is going to care if we break a few rules, so long as we catch…" Pansy hesitated. "whoever it is that we're trying to catch. You of all people should be familiar with this method, Granger, after all the stupid shit you and your friends used to do back at Hogwarts."

This whole plan seemed very risky to Hermione. "And if we get caught?"

Pansy laughed, a genuine laugh, before she took another sip of her drink. "I never get caught." She said mischievously.

So, that's how Hermione found herself huddled on the floor of her living room with her beaded bag grasped tight in her hands and Pansy eyeballing it hungrily. She lifted a glass of red wine to her lips and took a sip before she said, "Well? Are you going to dump it out or not?"

Hermione hesitated one more time before she opened the beaded bag and dumped out the contents onto the ground in between them. The little vial she had filled with the soil covered in mysterious liquid tumbled out, followed by the worn book she had stolen from the bookcase, some chapstick, a little pin she had gotten in London, and a folded picture.

"What's that?" Pansy asked. She grabbed up the picture before Hermione had a chance to stop her. "Oh, Weasley, right." She dropped the picture back onto the ground with disinterest. Hermione picked it back up and carefully placed it into her bag. "What happened with you two anyway?"

Hermione glared at her before she huffed and tossed her hair over her shoulder. "That's none of your business, nor is it the time for that." In an attempt to distract her, Hermione picked up the vial and handed it over to her.

Pansy set her glass down and held the vial up to her eyeball, as though she'd be able to detect its substance through eyesight alone. Hermione picked up the book and flipped through it. Some of the pages were badly water damaged, making the writing illegible, but most of it was still intact. She spotted a few words as she skimmed through, like dark magic, moonlight, and everlasting.

Pansy swore beside her and caused Hermione to look up. "What?" She asked.

"We'll need lab equipment to figure out what it is." Pansy had uncorked the vessel and stuck her wand deep into the soil, only to extract it looking disappointed. "My wand can't detect whatever it is."

Hermione shrugged. "It could just be water or something." She said sheepishly. She hadn't exactly made sure that it wasn't something simple like water or some other beverage. "If we give it to Anthony, he can –"

"I'm not giving anything to him," Pansy glared at her. "And I'm not saying needing lab equipment brings us to a dead end. We'll just have to get creative."

Hermione didn't like the sound of that. "What do you mean?"

"We'll just sneak into the lab at work. I got a guy down there who can help us out."

"A guy?" Hermione looked at her doubtfully. "How do you know this guy won't turn on us like your friend Flint?"

Pansy snorted and rolled her eyes. "Flint wasn't my friend. Besides, this guy is different." She suddenly stood to her feet and started to gather her things.

"Where are you going?" Hermione asked, shocked by her sudden wish to leave.

"He could probably help us now, if we hurry."

"You want to go now?" Hermione squeaked. It was one thing to sit in her apartment and look over evidence they weren't supposed to have. It was a whole other thing to sneak back into work when they weren't supposed to be there, break into the lab, and bait someone into helping them. "What if we get him into trouble?"

For the second time that day, Pansy laughed at her as though she were a confused little child. "Trust me, I don't think you'd be too upset if he got into trouble for us."

* * *

"Well, well, well. Look who finally decided to come visit the little people, o' great Auror."

Hermione froze on the spot. She'd recognize that hair anywhere. She'd been blinded by it numerous times. "Malfoy?" Out of all the years that Hermione had worked for the Ministry, not once had she crossed paths with Draco Malfoy. Yet here he was, lab coat and all, bent over a microscope. She blinked several times to make sure that it was really him.

"Oh, and Granger." Draco's bright eyes darted past Pansy's shoulder to look at her briefly before he turned back to Pansy. "You brought Granger down here?"

Pansy nodded absentmindedly as she hunted through her bag for the vial Hermione had mistakenly given to her. Finally, she secured it from the depths and handed it over to him.

Draco took it without looking at it; his eyes still lingered on Hermione, as though she were a predator that had suddenly entered into his private den. "Awesome. So glad you could join us." He grumbled sarcastically.

Hermione didn't have time to retort as he rolled away in his chair and started to question Pansy about the vial.

"Where did you get it?" He asked.

Pansy followed him to the other side of the room, where a brightly lit table was set up. "It was in a tunnel under a shack in the forest."

"Very descriptive," Draco said cynically as he opened the vial and carefully dumped the soil into a clear, flat container.

"That's all I can tell you," Pansy said. She gave Hermione a look over her shoulder as though to make sure she stayed quiet. But Hermione was still too shocked at Draco's sudden presence to spill any kind of secrets. Pansy was right, she didn't really care if he got into trouble for helping them. In fact, he'd probably deserve it.

"Well, it's going to take a while to figure out what it is. I'm not picking up on any known substances." Draco muttered as he bent over the little container.

"How do you know?" Hermione's curiosity outweighed her discomfort as she edged closer.

Draco chuckled and looked up at her. That's when she noticed it. His eyes weren't just bluer than she remembered them. They were brighter, too. And she could just make out the little rim of white around the iris of his left eye. She couldn't help herself; she stepped closer and squinted into his eyes.

"What is that?" She asked in awe.

"Enhanced vision." He tapped the side of his forehead. "Helps scan and detect substances for known particles, wounds for entrance and exit points," a little smirk came over him. "and human facial features for detectable emotions."

Hermione blinked and stepped away from him. "That's… incredible." She breathed out.

Draco stood and carried the clear container to the other side of the room, where a long wall of unnerving looking machinery stood. "You have your buddy Finnigan to thank for these."

"Seamus?" Hermione asked.

Draco nodded before he placed the container into one of the machines. "Came into my lab a few years ago with a prototype. It's changed our criminal system for the better." There was something ironic about the way Draco Malfoy said 'criminal system' as though he hadn't been a part of the criminal problem back in school, but Hermione didn't have it in her to fight with him today.

"I didn't expect to see you working here." She said truthfully as she eyed the strange machines he fiddled with. "These look very… muggle-like."

Draco rolled his eyes. "As if muggles could come up with technology this advanced. No, Granger, this is all 100% wizard-made and magic-run." With that, he flipped a switch and turned his attention to Pansy. "It'll be ready in a few days."

"A few days?" Pansy blurted out angrily. "We don't have a few days! Make it work faster."

"I can't make the machine work faster, Pans," Draco carefully explained to her as though she were five-year-old. "It'll take a few days, there's nothing I can do about it. When the results come back, you'll be the first to know."

Pansy crossed her arms and looked sour. When it seemed like nothing she could do would change Draco's answer, she turned and disappeared from the room without so much as a goodbye. Hermione shifted awkwardly on the spot. Was she supposed to thank him? She thought she should. He was risking his neck by helping them, after all.

"Thanks." She said.

Draco looked up from a manila folder he had grabbed from the stack on his desk. Hermione stood rooted to the spot and waited for him to acknowledge her appreciation. Which he didn't. Instead, he raised an eyebrow at her and said, "Get out of my lab now," before he returned to his work.

Some things never change.

* * *

**If y'all thought I wasn't going to find a way to incorporate Malfoy into this story, then you were wrong, haha!**

**Hope you enjoyed! Make sure to follow along so you get alerts when I post a new chapter!**


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